Hot football in the south gives different results

FC Krasnodar broke the winning streak, but kept the lead; PFC Sochi defeated Rostov in the southern derby and rose in the standings

Lost points

“Bulls” came to the fifth round of the championship of Russia the only team that did not lose points. The home meeting with the capital’s Lokomotiv gave hope that the winning streak would continue. The team of Mikhail Galaktionov started the season unimportantly: once won against the trailing Torch below, lost to CSKA and tied twice with Wings of the Soviets and Rubin. In addition, the “railroad workers” arrived in Krasnodar without the injured Artem Dzyuba.

Before the game, the “citizens” announced the transfer of central defender Viktor Torema to their camp. The Brazilian footballer came from Portuguese side Braga and signed a contract until the end of June 2027. But Torema did not even get into the application for this game, but another newcomer came out in the main team – fullback Lukas Olas. The Argentine played only one half. Vladimir Ivic said after the match that the player was not ready to play the whole match.

Krasnodar took the initiative in their own hands from the first minutes. The team of Vladimir Ivic controlled the ball more, put pressure, generally always tried to act from a position of strength. At the same time, the “black-and-greens” lacked pace, they failed to create danger at the opponent’s goal.

But “Krasnodar” was quickly lucky. In the twentieth minute of the match, Sergei Volkov, after Eduard Spertsyan’s pass, went to the gates of Lokomotiv, goalkeeper Ilya Lantratov committed a foul of the last hope and demolished the defender. Spertsyan approached to hit from the point, who hit the bottom, hit, but close to the post. An annoying mistake will affect the result.

After the unrealized penalty, the game has not changed. Krasnodar pressed, but little came of it. Lokomotiv fought back calmly. Galaktionov’s team had a series of corners, from which the “railroad” could not benefit. Guests also ran out to counterattack, however, they did not give scoring chances. In the first half, the “bulls” hit twice as many on goal (eight against four), but they hit the target only twice (against one from Lokomotiv).

Entering the field after the break, the “bulls” immediately opened the scoring. First, Joao Batchi took the initiative. The Angolan reached the penalty area, shot into the far corner, Lantratov hit the ball in front of him, Ilzat Akhmetov was the first on the rebound and brought the projectile into the net at speed. Krasnodar immediately could score a second goal. Spertsyan took a free kick but hit the crossbar.

Changes in the score did not change the course of the game. The hosts held the initiative, attacked, although not sharply. Lokomotiv defended, sometimes running into harmless counterattacks. But in this situation, time played into the hands of Krasnodar, so they were more focused on keeping the score. In the 58th minute, Nikita Kryvtsov got injured, he was replaced by Kadi.

The “railwaymen” were powerless to change something, it seemed that before the end of the match they would not be able to score a goal. Chief referee Yevhen Kukulyak added seven minutes. Six of them were not filled with anything remarkable – only on the seventh Lokomotiv performed a miracle. First, Ilya Samoshnikov threw the ball into the penalty area from out, where Anton Miranchuk played on the rebound and sent the ball into the top corner of Matvey Safonov’s goal with a beautiful volley – 1: 1. Krasnodar did not have enough seconds to win the fifth victory in a row in the Russian Premier -league.

Unexpectedly, after such a development of events, Vladimir Ivic commented on the game. The Serb vaguely hinted that there is someone who does not want Krasnodar to be in the lead, and therefore intervened in the course of the meeting.

— I want to congratulate my players: they played well. If there was one team on the field, it was Krasnodar. That we didn’t win is unrealistic. I do not remember a single moment of the opponent. But it happens, it’s football. We had similar games, for example with Pari Nizhny Novgorod. The opponent didn’t score his chances then, but we won. The real score of today’s match should have been 3 : 0 or 4 : 0. We had a penalty, a crossbar, a few chances. At Lokomotiv, I don’t even remember one moment. In the last minute of the game we should have reacted better. I’ve been in football all my life. In the last ten minutes of this game, as well as the last ten minutes of the last game, I get the feeling that someone wants to give us a hint about our position in the table,” Vladimir Ivic said.

Despite the loss of points, Krasnodar remained in first place after the fifth round of the Russian Championship. True, Ural caught up with him. Both Ivic’s team and Viktor Goncharenko’s team have thirteen points, the “bulls” win by the difference between goals scored and conceded.

In the next round, Krasnodar will have a chance to break away from their pursuers. “Citizens” play away with an outsider – “Torch”. “Ural” will fight away with “Zenith”, which is only three points behind the leaders. The main thing for Krasnodar is not to miss your chance again so ineptly.

raged

Barca hosted Rostov in the fifth round. After a triple loss in a row in the Russian Premier League, this match was decisive for Sochi coach Dmitry Khokhlov. Guests in this confrontation looked clear favorites. All the more unexpected was the outcome of the meeting.

The match turned out to be really bright. Both teams, despite the heat, cheerfully started the game. The guests had more possession. At the same time, the Sochi residents had approaches to the gates of Sergei Pesyakov, creating a danger on the standards. “Rostov” did not hit on goal, the players began to sort things out with each other right on the field.

On the sixteenth minute, Artur Yusupov gave a high pass into the penalty area – there Timofey Margasov already threw the ball into the goalkeeper’s area with his head, where Martin Kramaric, ahead of the goalkeeper, ferried the projectile into the net on the fly.

“Rostov” clearly did not expect such a development of events and was paralyzed. The owners did not fail to take advantage of this. In the 28th minute, Sochi organized an attack in which Luka Djordjevic received a pass to himself, ran away from the defenders, burst into the penalty area and shot past Pesyakov under the far post.

After the second missed goal, Rostov collapsed. In the first half, the team never hit the target. This is despite the fact that after two goals scored, the hosts stepped back and gave the initiative to the opponent.

After the break, Rostov tried to change the course of the meeting. The team of Valery Karpin ran to attack, but to no avail. Best of all, he managed to create chances at the gates of Nikolai Zabolotny when performing set pieces. The “resorters” defended themselves reliably, did not make mistakes, and at the same time created good chances.

In the 69th minute, after a pass through the center, the ball ricocheted off Daniil Utkin towards Martin Kramaric, the Slovene picked it up at the edge of the penalty area and threw it over the confused Pesyakov. The stadium rejoiced!

Of course, in this situation, the Khokhlov team finished the fight confidently, while the guests, on the contrary, were confused and logically missed. Yury Medvedev, who had just come on as a substitute, after an excellent combination in the 77th minute, received the ball in the penalty area, improved his position and shot into the far corner of the goal – 4: 0. The Rostov defense was in a coma.

In such a situation, for one team, the ending became a mere formality, for the other – torture. A confident victory allowed the “leopards” to improve their standings. With six points, they are in tenth place in the championship table. But even more this victory gave an emotional result. Such a bright win can help both the players and the coach to cope with the emerging crisis in the team, to begin to rise further. The next match Sochi will play at home with Lokomotiv, a team that has the same number of points and ranks eleventh in the standings.